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Cacao ceremony?

E

Espiritus

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 6, 2016
Messages
67
How much serotonin does ceremonial grade cacao release? Anyone had ceremonial cacao?
 
This is a bit of a head scratcher for me. Cocoa powder is cocoa powder, by and large. I mean, there's dutched and undutched. but I have a feeling you're not talking about baking...

The nut itself has a lot of fat content, so lower actual methylxanthine content overall than regular cocoa powder. Ditto chocolate.

Don't get me wrong, chocolate is a great drug, but I wouldn't call it psychedelic by any stretch. It's a very nice stimulant, and it's good for vasoconstriction, too. It's not a serotonin releaser, though, per se. If it was, there'd be a lot of serious side effects when people ate chocolate while on their depression medication.

Did you come across some kind of marketing that said something to the contrary? I could see the logic being something like: ^ serotonin = ^ happiness; ^ chocolate = ^ happiness; thus ^ chocolate = ^ serotonin
 
Ceremonial cacao means much higher doses than people on pharms would ingest through diet. I've heard the effects then become empathogenic, so I'd be surprised if it doesn't touch serotonin at those levels.
 
Ceremonial cacao is mostly new age bullshit meant to feed the egos of attractive people with money who don't have much going on otherwise.

However, as with all things, there are various grades of chocolate. Cocoa generally refers to a more processed product, often with added sugar, where as cacao is closer to the natural state.

For just about the best cacao has to offer, look online for raw cacao beans with the dried fruit of the cacao pod still attached. Eat ten of those and you can feel something like euphoria, talkativeness, and massive energy increase. Cacao contains several compounds that interact with neurotransmitters and the endocannabinoid system.
 
There's a lot more going on that just theobromine, such as anandamide, as well as various FAAH inhibitors such as palmitoylethanolamide.
 
cryptix420 said:
FAAH inhibitors such as palmitoylethanolamide.
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There's a lot of paywall going on re: anandamide concentrations. Will have to go get some login credentials to view them, but absent FAAH inhibitors it looks like staggering amounts of chocolate would have to be consumed to produce an appreciable effect. I couldn't find any good sources for palmitoylethanolamide in cacao - do you remember where you came across that? Or were you maybe thinking of just general FAAH-inhibiting flavonoids?
 
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Ok it sounds like I won't end up with serotonin depletion after consuming cacao lol that's good to know
 
Pfafffed said:
There's a lot of paywall going on re: anandamide concentrations. Will have to go get some login credentials to view them, but absent FAAH inhibitors it looks like staggering amounts of chocolate would have to be consumed to produce an appreciable effect. I couldn't find any good sources for palmitoylethanolamide in cacao - do you remember where you came across that? Or were you maybe thinking of just general FAAH-inhibiting flavonoids?
Click to expand...

Despite the fact that N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) (Table 1) from plants do not interact with CB receptors (plants do not generally produce arachidonic acid, which is the acyl scaffold favoured for CB interaction) they have been shown to inhibit FAAH, thus leading to an increase in endocannabinoid tone. N-linoleoylethanolamide and N-oleoylethanolamide, which are found not only in chocolate (Theobroma cacao L.) but also other plants (Di Marzo et al., 1998), and the widespread NAE palmitoylethanolamide, inhibit anandamide breakdown (Maurelli et al., 1995; Di Tomaso et al., 1996). Certain N-alkylamides (alkamides) from Echinacea spp. (Table 2) have been shown to interact functionally with the human CB2 receptor with low nM to µM Ki values (Gertsch et al., 2006). These N-isobutylamides selectively act at the CB2 receptor over the CB1 receptor, leading to an increase in intracellular calcium which could be blocked by the selective CB2 receptor inverse agonist SR144528, but they do not modulate the Gαi signalling pathway. Intriguingly, CB2 receptor-binding N-alkylamides show similar anti-inflammatory effects as anandamide (e.g. inhibition of TNF-α) at low nM concentrations (Raduner et al., 2006). Certain Echinacea N-alkylamides inhibit anandamide reuptake in vitro (Chicca et al., 2009). Like anandamide, N-alkylamides also target PPAR-gamma (Spelman et al., 2009). Different Echinacea N-isobutylamides are orally bioavailable resulting in nM plasma levels in humans (Woelkart et al., 2008). The polyacetylenic polyyne falcarinol, which is found in different plants of the Apiaceae family (e.g. in carrots) shows significant binding interactions with both cannabinoid receptors, but appears to selectively undergo an alkylation reaction with the CB1 receptor (Ki value <1 µM), leading to relatively potent inverse agonistic and pro-inflammatory effects in human skin (Leonti et al., 2010). Finally, it has been proposed that certain dietary fatty acids, which can also be found in plants, can modulate the ECS by influencing the availability of phospholipid biosynthetic precursors of endocannabinoids (Banni and Di Marzo, 2009).
 
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